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Month: May 2016

There is absolutely nothing better than blueberry muffins fresh from the oven…made from scratch of course. I am going to share my favorite and best recipe for melt in your mouth chocolate chip blueberry muffins! You’ll want to bring them to every staff meeting and brunch.

Ingredients:

1 pinch of Salt

1 cup of blueberries

As many chocolate chips you feel necessary (about 1 cup preferred)

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup of white sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flower

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 of cup of milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, cream butter or margarine with sugar.

Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.

Mix in milk and flour mixture alternately in three parts, starting with the milk.

Gently mix in blueberries and chocolate chips.

Drop batter by tablespoons into muffin pan

Bake 20-25 minutes

Check with toothpick and make sure it comes out clean. Blueberries might come out on it but that’s okay. You just don’t want the batter coming out.

First 5 is a great way to spend more time with God. This app allows you to dedicate 5 minutes each day with God. Lysa TerKeurst has done a phenomenal job creating this app and creating meaningful bible studies.

|firstfive.org|

ColorStory is a great app for editing photos. I like that I can overlay filters, which I can’t do on Instagram. When done with your photo you can share it right on Instagram or Facebook.

JoyFM Radio is one of my favorite stations to listen to in the car. I downloaded the app and realized that I can listen to it live from my phone while I’m cleaning, exercising, or just relaxing.

Periscope is great for live video chat. I follow my favorite bloggers on Periscope, like Kate from The Small Things Blog. It’s great for Q&A sessions or just if you have something really exciting to share.

So as some of you know, Barrett and I recently bought our first home and we absolutely love it. It is amazing the amount of space we have in comparison to our itty bitty one bedroom apartment. Although we miss our apartment just a little bit, because it was our first place together, we are in love with having something that is ours.

Something that we found ourselves doing even before closing was finding projects we wanted to do and things that we wanted for our house. Although this was exciting, it got expensive quick when we started to add it all up. So of course, we had to take a step back and look at our priorities. We knew that we needed a washer and dryer right away because…well we like clean clothes. We did not, however, need a new kitchen table right away so we put that on our lower priority list.

What we have done is created three separate lists. Our first list contains everything that we absolutely need and is first priority, things that need to be done within the next month. Our second list contains everything that we really want to get done but is not an absolute necessity, things that we want to get done within the next 4-6 months. The last list that we created contains things that we want but we know that we really won’t be able to afford for a while, things that can be completed within the next year or so.

There is really no way specific way to choose which category your projects fall in to except for what is most important to you. What can you live without for now and what you cannot live without.

A Teacher’s Passion
Teaching is my greatest passion in life. Ever since I was a little girl, I have known that being in the classroom is all that I want. Every day when I wake up in the morning, I don’t regret, even for a second, choosing this wonderful profession. Being there for my students and helping them fill their brains with knowledge is enough fulfillment to last me a lifetime. There’s a certain feel about a classroom that makes my heart skip a beat when I walk in. The smell of dry erase markers, the desk plates that show ownership for each kid, the set up, the furniture, and the accessories that go along.

Organization is the key

Photo from Ebay

To have success in the classroom, organization is a must. Training your students to keep everything neat and tidy is crucial to your sanity. The best way to do that is to provide all the tools for them to keep your room organized. Having office bins can be helpful as well as supply bins for each table. I am also a huge fan of color coding my tables with the the supply bins so that you can call your students up by table colors and organize all of their folders, binders, and book covers according to the color of their table.

Get Creative

Photo from Ebay

Having motivational and educational posters around also helps the room to feel more warm and less bare. Having a cute border around your bulletin board that matches the theme of your room always makes the room come together. I have noticed that when your classroom is done up nice, the students respond better and feel more at home.

The Reading Corner

Photo from Ebay

Having a nice reading corner is always so important to me as a teacher. The kids need to love reading and when they have a reading corner with comfy seating, good books, and pleasant lighting! Reading should be relaxing and it is our job as teachers to make sure that our students have a comfy reading corner to enjoy.

The Mini Lesson Zone

Photo from Ebay

This area is so important to students learning and collaborating. The mini lesson zone is where the whole group learning happens. You want to be sure to have a comfy classroom rug where each student can have their own space. You also want to be sure to have a nice comfy chair for read alouds.

I hope that these four tips help guide you to inspiration for your classroom! The environment that we teach in is so important not only for the students, but for us as teachers. If our classroom is bland and boring, then we will probably be bland and boring!